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THE 



AMERICAN CONFLICT 



AN ADDRESS, 



SPOKEN BEFORE TUE 



AND A PUBLIC AUDIENCE, 



IN NORDHEIMER'S HALL, MOiNTREAL, 



ON THURSDAY EVENING, 22 nd DECEMBER, 1864, 



BY REV. JOHN CORDNER. 




Published by Keqmest. 



PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL, ST. NICHOLAS STREET. 
18G5. 



QA t 



The following Address was spoken before the 
New England Society of Montreal, and a public 
audience, on Thursday evening, 22nd December 
inst., the anniversary of the Landing of the Pil- 
grim Fathers. The chair was taken on the occa- 
sion by the President of the New England Society, 
On the platform were seated the Presidents and 
official representatives of the various National' 
Societies of the city — English, Scottish and Irish. 
The Address was spoken from detached notes; 
and having been requested for publication by the 
New England Society, and by others who heard 
it, the following report has been prepared from 
the notes, and from memory. 

MoNTUBAL, Dec, 1864. 



THE AMEiUCAN CONFLICT. 



Gentlemen of the New England Society : 

As I came down here this evening through the 
deep snow-drifts, and an atmosphere some degrees 
below zero, the thought of the hardships of the 
Landing which this day commemorates, rose to 
greater distinctness in my mind. To the frozen shore 
of a northern wilderness, on a cold December day, 
two hundred and forty-four years ago, came that 
resolute band of English men and English women 
who laid the foundation of the Plymouth colony 
of New England. Inspired by a lofty idealism 
and firm faith in God, they were constrained, for 
conscience sake, to forego the comforts of their 
native and much loved home, and face the perils 
of the sea, and of foreign and unknown climes. 
Such men and women, such faith and fidelity to 
conscience, are eminently worthy of commemora- 
tion. 

Fellow Citizens of Montreal : 

When, on the day before yesterday, the Com- 
mittee of the New England Society asked me to 
speak here on this evening, I at once acceded to 
their request. Up till a few days ago, they had 



THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 



hoped that Mr. George Thompson of England, who 
is now visiting America, would have been able to 
come to Montreal for this anniversary ; but though 
much desiring to do so, Mr. Thompson found that 
his engagements elsewhere rendered his present 
coming impossible. Had he come I should have 
been his grateful hearer. The name of George 
Thompson has been long familiar to me, as that 
of one of England's most active public men, whose 
labors in parliament and out of parliament on 
behalf of the working classes, and the rights of 
labor, have commanded my attention and respect. 
I hold in my hand Mr. Thompson's letter to the 
President of the New England Society, express- 
ing regret that he is compelled to postpone his 
visit to Montreal. Thirty years ago, in a pre- 
vious visit to America, it was his privilege, so he 
writes, to speak at Plymouth on the anniversary 
of " Forefathers' Day," and it would have giveji 
him great pleasure to appear again here at a 
similar anniversary, after the lapse of a genera- 
tion. But as he could not come, I have consented 
to appear here at rather brief notice. I do not 
say this for any purpose of making the Society 
responsible for the imperfection of what I may 
have to say. I need not have consented unless 
I had chosen to do so. The choice of topic, too, 
was altogether my own. And for any merit or 
demerit in what I may say, I alone am answer- 
able. Under ordinary circumstances I should not 
have consented to speak. But the time is extra- 



THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 7 

ordinary. In view of the existing excitement 
caused by recent events, I felt that our fellow 
citizens of the New England Society of Montreal, 
ought to have their anniversary in some form or 
other. The events just referred to have suggest- 
ed the subject of my address. I propose to speak 
on the American Conflict. Living as we now do 
in the midst of an excitement resulting from the 
civil war in the nation across our borders, and 
some atrocities connected therewith having been 
so recently brought to our own doors in a manner 
to make us think of possible peril to our own 
peace, it seems a fitting time to review, though 
ever so imperfectly, the American Conflict in its 
origin and purpose. Any review here made, 
must needs be very brief. Nor is there anything 
new to be said. Still, in view of the misappre- 
hension incident to a period of strong excitement, 
when various passions, prejudices and interests, 
are called into play, it may be useful to recal some 
facts connected with the origin of this disastrous 
strife, and direct attention to the end proposed 
by those who initiated the war. And here at 
the outset I would say, that if my observation of 
this matter had begun after the actual outbreak 
of hostilities, and had been nxainly directed to the 
heroic qualities of the Southern people, their fer- 
tility of resource in fighting against great odds, 
their endurance against their more powerful anta-~ 
gonist, their suftering on their own soil, through 
the devastation of war ; and all this while their cry 



8 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

was, that they onl}'' desired to be " let alone" in the 
assertion of their freedom and independence as a 
separate nation, then it is likely that I should say 
as so many have said and still say, " Let them 
alone ; let them have their reasonable demand of 
freedom and independence : why prolong a war so 
sanguinary in itself, and so detrimental to a wide 
range of interests at home and abroad ?" If, in 
addition to this very limited observation of events 
forced on me by the current chronicle of the daily 
newspapers, I had any personal or class interest 
in the palpable failure of a great fabric of popular 
government, or if, consciously or unconsciously, I 
yielded my judgment to the lead of those who 
have such interest, then I should actively sympa- 
thise with the South, which puts a ban on honest 
labor, holding its laborers as chattel property, and 
proposes to perpetuate a dominant oligarchy as 
the ruling class. But as my observation of events 
goes far beyond the outbreak of this war, and as, 
moreover, I have no interest at all in depreciating 
the capacity of the people to take care of their 
own affairs and govern themselves, as I can claim 
no connection whatever with oligarchy or aristo- 
cracy, it being my great privilege to be identified 
at every point with the industrial classes of so- 
ciety ; and as, moreover, I refuse to yield to any 
leading, be it- ever so artfully tendered, which 
has for its intention or its effect the depreciation 
of honest and free labor — all this being the case, 
I am compelled to other and different views and 
conclusions on this matter. 



THE MORAL ISSUE. 



THE MORAL ISSUE. 



More than twenty -one years have now elapsed 
since I came from the mother country to this 
daughter land, and took up my abode in this city. 
And during all this period I have been an ob- 
server of the moral aspects of the political aifairs 
of the United States. For it has been a marked 
peculiarity of the leading political questions of 
that country that these questions were inextri- 
cably interwoven with moral questions in which 
the whole civilized world took an interest. The 
marvellous expansion of commerce in the leading 
Southern staple, gave to slave labor a greatly in- 
creased value, and thus augmented to the Southern 
view the importance of negro slavery as a social 
and political institution ; and this, while the tide 
of a more enlightened public opinion was rising 
against it every where else in America and 
Europe. The conscience of the Northern States 
was gradually aroused to the moral wrong of a sys- 
tem which reduced a man to a chattel, making 
men, women and children, things of bargain and 
sale, depriving them of the rights of marriage and 
the family, thus opening a way to moral degra- 
dation on all hands. Great Britain, after a length- 
ened agitation, and at a great cost of money, had 
wiped the stain of negro slavery from her West 
India colonies. And having done this, her people, 
comprising all classes, sent remonstrance after re- 
monstrance across the Atlantic, urging the people 



10 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

of the United States to deal faithfully with this na- 
tional evil, nor halt in their agitation against it 
until it should cease to exist. Thus stimulated from 
abroad^ as well as at home, the anti-slavery agita- 
tion acquired formidable proportions. The South 
became more and more alarmed for the safety of 
their " peculiar institution." While its importance 
to them in an economic point of view increased year 
by year, the feeling against it in the Free States of 
the Union, and throughout the world, increased 
year by year likewise. The preservation of this 
institution, its extension and perpetuation, became 
the central thought of the Southern mind. All 
political questions were considered primarily in 
their relation to this as the cardinal point. It 
entered into all party combinations throughout 
the United States, north and south, east and west. 
This has been patent to every observer during the 
past twenty years. As the grand moral issue in- 
volved became more distinctly revealed, rising 
every year into clearer and more definite form, 
it gradually'' disintegrated the existing combina- 
tions of party politics, based as they were on con- 
siderations of expediency or economics. A few 
years ago it broke up the old and influential 
Whig party in the United States. And more 
recently, it has utterly demolished the old and 
well-organised Democratic party. The thoughtful 
observer, looking through outward events to the 
moral forces which produce them, will see here a 
steady upward tendency of the public mind to a 



THE MORAL ISSUE. 11 

higher plane of civilization. All who have stud- 
ied the moral struggle in England, led by Clarkson 
and Wilberforce, and their cotemporaries, on be- 
half of simple justice towards a weak and oppress- 
ed race, will be able to appreciate in some mea- 
sure, but not to its full extent, all that is involved 
in the gradually changed public opinion of the 
United States. In England the influence of the 
West India interest was powerful against Clark- 
son and Wilberforce, but it bears no proper com- 
parison with the influences so various and power- 
ful which the Southern interest could exert on 
the general mind of America. In England the 
movement on behalf of human freedom, was 
jeered by an influential press, and its advocates, 
including the most honored names in the land, 
were mobbed in English towns. But the fidelity 
of those honored men to their ideas of justice led 
to a triumph for freedom throughout the whole 
mind of the nation, which now stands as one of 
the proudest traditions connected with the British 
realm and the British name. A similar trial of 
misconception, misrepresentation and mob vio- 
lence, awaited the movement in the United States, 
but on a larger and more determinate scale. In 
America, there were political obstacles in the 
way which did not exist in England. And these 
obstacles not being rightly apprehended in Eng- 
land, it came to pass that English remonstrances 
addressed to the people of the United States on 
the subject of slavery frequently failed of their 



12 TJIE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

purpose. But the honest desire to mitigate the 
growing evil of slavery in the nation, made hope- 
ful progress in the national mind of the American 
Union. It came more and more to be regarded by 
the people as a blot on the fame of their great 
and prosperous country. It was felt to be a dis- 
credit abroad; and a fertile source of dishonest 
party intrigue at home. Then on moral grounds 
it was seen to be without defence. The intense 
anxiety of the Southern mind for its safety, now 
so imperilled by having the attention of the 
civilized workl brought to bear more directly 
upon it, culminated in fanaticism. The moral 
discussion of the subject, so long dreaded and 
evaded by the South, was now faced by them in the 
spirit of a forlorn hope, and positions taken which 
revealed the distraction of their moral conscious- 
ness, and the distortion of their moral convictions. 
" When the slavery question was first mooted in 
" our national councils," says the Rev. Dr. Leacock 
of New Orleans, in a sermon preached November, 
18G0, " we dreaded the consequences, and trem- 
" bled at the bare mention of the subject ; we stood 
" aghast before our adversaries; and why? Because 
" we were not so well informed on the subject of 
" slavery as we are now ; many of us doubted whe- 
" ther we could religiously hold our servant." This 
moral doubt, he adds, made them cowardly, but in 
the new light of the last few year^, the doubt has 
been dissipated, and now they feel that they can 
hold their slaves; and this new moral certainty 



THE POLITICAL ISSUE, 13 

which has come to them, has given them a courage 
not felt before. The position now quite commonly 
taken by the South is, that slavery is a divine 
institution, existing there to-day by divine sanc- 
tion, and for a divine purpose. It is affirmed that 
the providential purpose of the South is to preserve, 
extend and perpetuate it. Says the Rev. Dr. 
Palmer, of New Orleans, in a sermon preached in 
that city rather more than four years ago : "' The 
" providential trust comrnitted to the South as a 
" people, is to conserve and perpetuate the institu- 
" tion of domestic slavery, as now existing." Pie 
avers that in standing by this trust, they are defend- 
ing the cause of religion. As the providentially 
constituted guardians of slavery, he adds, '' the 
" South can demand nothing less than that it 
" should be left open to expansion, subject to no human 
"' limitations.'' This is the language of slave-holding 
fanaticism, which could obtain no hold or hearing 
outside of slaveholding limits, or slaveholding 
influences. Fanaticism is a species of madness, 
and, in this instance, it may be safely taken as 
an illustration of the adage which makes madness 
the presage of impending destruction. 

THE POLITICAL ISSUE. 

Here we see indication of that political issue 
which now became inevitable. Aiming at the 
territorial expansion of slavery, the South would 
not only not allow any further limit to be placed 



14 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

to its extension, but they would break down the 
limitations already existing, and by law estab- 
lished, as a peaceful compromise of the matter so 
long in dispute. More than forty years ago, 
when Missouri — a part of the Louisiana tract 
— was admitted as a State into the Union, there 
was a lengthened and important debate on the 
slavery question, which was brought to a close by 
the adoption of a measure of compromise, known 
as the " Missouri Compromise." Missouri was 
admitted as a Slave State, but a line was drawn 
north of Arkansas, northward of which it was 
solemnly agreed that slavery should not be 
extended. This agreement was enacted and rati- 
fied in due form, and stood as the confessed law 
of the land for more than thirty years. But the 
restless and aggressive spirit of slavery became 
dissatisfied with this established limitation, and 
through various intrigues and party combinations 
at the North, succeeded in breaking down the 
Missouri Compromise. This was accomplished 
during the presidency of Mr. Pierce, and thus the 
way was opened for the unlimited extension of 
negro slavery throughout all the territories of the 
American Union. This act, which, however, was 
only one of a series of aggressive acts on the part 
of the Slave Power, aroused the people of the Free 
States to a more united and determined resistance. 
The effect of this was seen in the presidential 
election of 1856, when Mr. Buchanan and Colonel 
Fremont were the rival candidates. Mr. Buchanan 



THE POLITICAL ISSUE. 15 

was the Democratic and Conservative candidate, 
so-called, prepared to conserve slavery, and, as a 
general principle, to be controlled by Southern 
influences. Colonel Fremont was the candidate 
of the party which aimed to exclude slavery from 
the territories. The popular watchword of this 
party was " free soil, free speech, free men, and 
Fremont." Its time for success, however, had not 
yet come. Fremont was defeated, and Buchanan 
was chosen President for the next four years. 
Meanwhile, the Free Soil party, now known as 
" Republicans," as distinguished from the " Demo- 
crats," were not idle. The disastrous influence of 
slavery in the National Councils became more 
fully developed as it saw the political dangers 
thickening around it. The imperious self-will, 
which comes from the habitual exercise of irre- 
sponsible power, the impatience of restraint which 
such power engenders, and the ready resort to 
violence which springs from familiarity^ with the 
plantation whip — all this was brought into the 
halls of Congress. A Massachusetts senator was 
stunned with a slaveholder's bludgeon in his seat 
in the Senate House at Washington. Southern 
communities publicly applauded the dastardly and 
ferocious deed. It became more clear to the mind 
of the Free States that there was only one course, 
viz : to check the encroachments of the Slave 
Power, and publicly pronounce Slavery a sectional, 
not a national institution As another presiden- 
tial election approached, the Republican party 



16 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

organized for the contest, attempting no interfer- 
ence with slavery where it ah'eady existed, thus 
conceding the right of the several Slave States 
to deal with it after their own manner, but 
proposing to restrict it within its present limits, 
and to prohibit it in future throughout territories 
of the Union where it did not then exist. This 
was the main issue presented at the presidential 
election of 1860. Brielly stated, the issue was 
this : the unlimited expansion of slavery, as 
demanded by the South ; or its territorial limita- 
tion. This issue went before the whole United 
States. Every State, North and South — from 
Maine to Texas — went into the contest. All sent 
their votes to Washington. And the result was, 
that Mr. Lincoln, the candidate of the party for 
the non-extension of slavery, was announced as the 
constitutionally elected President of the United 
States for the next four years. 

THE ACTION OF THE SOUTH. 

As soon as this announcement was made, the 
South showed unmistakable symptoms of deep 
dissatisfaction, and a determination to revolt. 
Subsequent developments show us how these first 
symptoms ripened into a formidable and wide- 
spread insurrection, involving the nation in the 
horrors of a civil war. Before Mr. Lincoln was 
inaugurated, and while Mr. Buchanan was still 
President, the national property at Charleston, 



THE ACTION OF THE SOUTH. 17 

South Carolina, was seized, the national ships were 
fired upon in Charleston harbor, and other like 
acts of war waged upon the National Government. 
Then ordinances of secession were rapidly passed 
without consulting the people, a revolutionary 
Congress established, and an army of resistance 
raised. So that when Mr. Lincoln was inaugu- 
rated, and in advance of any overt act of his 
government in relation to the South, he found 
himself confronted by a formidable insurrectionary 
opposition. Now, had the South any just cause to 
initiate such civil war under the circumstances, 
and organize an army to carry it on as they have 
done to this day ? I say, No. And in taking this 
ground, I waive all discussion of " State rights " 
so-called, as beyond my province and scope. My 
position is simply this : the South having gone 
into the presidential election of 1860, in common 
with the North, and all States of the Union, they 
were bound, in common with the North and other 
States, to abide peacefully by the constitutional 
result thereof. Whatever course they might take 
with respect to any future election, under any 
assumed right to secede, they were bound to this 
election, at any rate, by all constitutional and 
honorable obligations. And, having hastily and 
wilfully disregarded such obligations, we are jus- 
tified ill holding them responsible for the orujin of the 
present ivar, and for the deplorable consequences 
which have followed it, and still follow it to their 

B 



18 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

own nation, both North and South, and to other 
nations.* 

I have just said that I here forego the discus- 
sion of State rights. Nevertheless, I may be 
allowed to remind you that all the seceding 
States do not occupy the same historical position. 
Of the States now insurgent, we find some, as 
Arkansas and Louisiana, whose soil and privileges 
were a purchased acquisition, made by the original 
States of the Union, the great bulk of whom are 
in and for the Union still. It was about sixty 
years ago that the United States j)urchased from 
the French, the large territory west of the Missis- 
sippi, known as the Louisiana tract, for which they 
paid between eleven and twelve millions of 
dollars, and assumed the payment of certain 
claims, making in all some fifteen millions of 
dollars, as the price puid. A portion of this pur- 
chased tract is now known as the State of 
Louisiana, which was admitted into the Union 
in 1812. Now what rightful ground can Louisiana 

* A remarkable letter from General Lee has just found its way to tbe 
public through the columns of the London Times. It was written to his 
sister at the beginning of the Southern revolt : " My dear Sister," he 
writes, "the whole South is in a state of revolution, into which Virginia, 
" after a long struggle, has been drawn, and though I recognize no neces- 
" sity for this state of things, and would have forborne and pleaded to 
" the end for redress of e;rievances, real or supposed, yet in my own person 
" I had to meet the question whether I would take up arms against my 
" native State." Here is a confession from the leading general of the 
Southern armies, that he saw " no necessity" for the revolt into which 
he permitted himself to be drawn, and which has brought such disastrous 
consequences to the United States and to the world during the past four 
years. 



THE ACTION OF THE SOUTH. 19 

hav^e in saying to the bulk of the original States 
who paid their millions of solid money for her soil, 
and the advantages of outlet to the ocean 
which it gives by the mouth of the Mississippi 
river ; what rightful ground, I ask, can Louisiana 
have in saying to those other States : " I will 
secede, and form an independent nation ; the 
mouth of the Mississippi will be no longer at 
the service of your nation except on my condi- 
tions." Now, fellow-citizens, consider this matter 
a moment : Here we are at Montreal, at the head 
of the ship navigation of the St. Lawrence. Away 
to the eastward of us, lies a large tract of Canadian 
territory, rich in undeveloped resources. Away 
to the westward, lie the great lakes, and the wide 
stretching tillage lands of Western Canada. Now 
suppose the district of Quebec, including the outlet 
of the St. Lawrence, were in the hands of a foreign 
power, and that, in order to secure for ourselves 
and our posterity an open transit to the ocean for 
the various produce of our mines, forests and 
tillage lands, we, the people of central and western 
Canada, should purchase the district of Quebec at 
of cost of some millions of dollars taken from our 
joint treasury, what should we, the people of these 
regions, say, if the people of the Quebec district 
should, in a given number of years afterwards,an- 
nounce that they had seceded, and that the mouth 
of the St. Lawrence must henceforth be considered 
by us as in the hands of a foreign power. I think we 
should have a good many words with them before 



20 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

we consented to any such transfer of purchased 
privileges, as secession involved. And I think, 
too, that if they took up the sword to fight out 
this question of transfer by secession, we should 
take up the sword, also, and keep it going until 
we found out which of the two swords was the 
longer and stronger. 

Secession, according to the precedent the South 
seeks to establish, means anarchy. It means 
anarchy, not only in the United States, but 
throughout this whole continent. If the Slave 
States had a right to secede because they were 
defeated at the polls in 1S60, so likewise, had the 
little State of New Jersey, and the two others 
that were defeated in this year 18G4. Now 
Maine, Vermont, or New York, — any of the 
States on our own border, may be defeated at the 
next presidential election, four years hence. 
Following precedent, they raise a tumult and 
secede. Let the doctrine involved be practically 
established, and how long would it be until we 
should have it applied in Canada ? If, instead of 
national unity and political order on the other 
side of the frontier, we had such political disinte- 
gration and disorder, the contagion would spread 
to our own side. It may be said that the political 
pact in Canada is different from that existing 
between the States of the American Union. But 
how long would the letter of any political compact 
be respected, if the public opinion became de- 
moralized by familiarity Avith anarchy on the 



THE ACTION OP THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 21 

other side of the frontier. I say, then, that 
secession, such as the Slave States have initiated, 
means anarchy. In logical sequence and natural 
consequence, it brings eventual anarchy to every 
political community on this continent, from the 
north pole to the tropic line, 

THE ACTION OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 

When the purpose of the South became clearly 
revealed, the National Government was put to 
great disadvantage through lack of centralized 
power. The vacillating and feeble policy of Presi- 
dent Buchanan, surrounded as he was in his 
cabinet by the active friends of the South, 
gave the Slave States time to gather and 
consolidate their strength. The cabinet influ- 
ences at Washington favored them in various 
ways, among others by the almost wholesale 
transfer of the military stores of the nation, from 
Northern to Southern arsenals. When President 
Lincoln was inaugurated he found the depart- 
mental bureaus at Washington filled with public 
servants on whose fidelity to their public trusts he 
could not rely. Many were in secret, if not open 
sympathy, with those in revolt against his autho- 
rity, and were not scrupulous in serving them, to 
the disadvantage of the National Government. 
The crisis was a new experience to the rulers at 
Washington. There was no adequate provision 
made for such a trial. Hence delay inaction, 
when delay was highly detrimental and daiige- 



22 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

rous. The Southern people, more skilled in the 
use of arms than the people of the North, could 
place effective armies in the field more rapidly 
than the North. Hence their early successes, 
and the corresponding Northern defeats. The 
National Government wished to avoid war. And 
Mr. Lincoln did all that he honorably could do, 
to remove the dissatisfaction and suspicion of the 
South, and assure the Slave States of his just 
respect for their rights under the Constitution. 
He offered places in his cabinet to distinguished 
Southern men — among others to Mr. Stephens, of 
Georgia. In explanation of this it is to be borne 
in mind that Mr, Stephens, though now Vice- 
President of the Southern Confederacy, cast his 
vote at first against the ordinance of secession in 
Georgia. All efforts of Mr. Lincoln for concilia- 
tion failed, because he did not concede the one 
thing which the South required with respect to 
slavery. Mr. Lincoln could not concede this 
without betraying the confidence reposed in him 
as Chief Magistrate by the Free North and West. 
And all such efforts having failed, Mr. Lincoln 
put forth his power to assert his authority, as 
constitutionally elected Chief Magistrate, for pre- 
serving the Union and the integrity of the nation 
confided to his trust. 

INCIDENTAL QUESTIONS. 

Various incidental and complicated questions 
arise out of this Conflict, tending to confuse foreign 



INCIDENTAL QUESTIONS. 23 

judgment. For purposes of misietiding foreign 
opinion tiiey are readily available and have been 
freely used. 

Hie Motive to War. 

It has been said, for instance, that the main- 
tenance of the Union was the motive to war 
on one side, and the desire for independence 
the motive on the other. Now, this is true, 
but it is far from the whole truth. There is 
enough truth in the statement, however, to 
satisfy any one who does not want to know 
anything more about the matter. Hence the 
conlident clamor of superficial controversialists. 
There would be more truth in the statement 
if we should say that the North fought for 
the Union, although Slavery should be de- 
stroyed by the war, while the South fought 
for Slavery though the Union should be de- 
stroyed. Every discerning man, South and North, 
knows that this is the true state of the case. 
Mr. Spratt, of South Carolina, thus puts the 
matter in his letter of protest, written in Feb- 
ruary, 1861, against the decision of the Southern 
Congress with reference to the foreign slave 
trade. He regards the prohibition of this slave 
trade "as a great calamity," and a cowardly con- 
cession to the prevailing prejudices of the world. 
He avers that the slave breeding States " have no 
" rifiht to ash that their slaves, or any other ytroductSy 
'•'• shall he j)rotected to unnatural value in the markets 



34 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

" of the West:' " The South" he says, " is noiu in 
^^ the formation of a Slave Republic This, perhaps, 
" is not admitted generally. There are many 
" contented to believe that the South as a geo- 
" graphical section is in mere assertion of its 

" independence. This, I fear, is an 

" inadequate conception of the controversy. 

" The contest is not between the North 

" and South as geographical sections. The real con- 
" test is between the two forms of society which have 
" become established, the one at the North and the 
" other at the South." And he alludes as follows 
to the prospects of an independent Slave Republic: 
" Three years ago, in my report to the Commer- 
" cial Convention at Montgomery, I said that Euro- 
" pean States are hostile to the Union. Perhaps 
" ' they see in it a threatening rival in every 
" ' branch of art, and they see that rival armed 
" ' with one of the most potent productive institu- 
" ' tions the world has ever seen ; they would 
" ' crush India and Algeria to make an equal 
'•' ' supply of cotton with the North ; and, failing 
'^^ '■ in this, they would crush slavery to bring the 
" ^ North to a footing with them, but to slavery 
" ^ without the North they have no repugnance : 
" ^ on the contrary, if it were to stand out for 
" ' itself, free from the control of any other 
" ' power, and were to offer to European States, 
" ' upon fair terms, a full supply of its commodi- 
'• ' ties, it would not only not be warred upon, 
^ ' but the South would be singularly favored — 



INCIDENTAL QUESTIONS. 26 

" ^crowns would bend before her; kingdoms and 
'■' ' empires would break a lance to win the smile 
" ^ of her approval ; and, quitting her free estate, 
" ' it would be in her option to become the bride 
" ' of the Avorld, rather than as now, the miser- 
" ' able mistress of the North.' " 

Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President of the 
Southern Confederacy, leaves the world in no 
doubt about the origin of the war, and the 
purpose of the South in waging it. " African 
Slavery, as it exists among us," he says in his 
celebrated speech after the adoption of the new 
Southern Constitution, " was the immediate cause 
" of the late rupture and present revolution. 

^' The prevailing ideas entertained by 

"most of the leading statesmen at the time of 
" the formation of the old Constitution were, that 
" the enslavement of the African was in violation 
" of the laws of nature ; that it was wrong in 
" principle, socially, morally, and politically. It 
" was an evil they knew not well how to deal 
" with, but the general opinion of the men of 
" that day was that, somehow or other, in the 
" order of Providence, the institution would be 
" evanescent, and pass away. This idea, though 
" not incorporated in the Constitution, was the 
" prevailing idea at the time. The Constitution, 
" it is true, secured every essential guarantee to 
" their institution while it should last ; and hence 
"no argument can be justly used against the con- 
" stitutional guarantees thus secured, because of 



26 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

^ the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, 

'- however, were fundamentally wrong 

' Our new government is founded upon exactly 
' the opposite ideas. Its foundations are laid, its 
' corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that Slaverij^ 
' subordination to the superior race, is the natural 
* and moral condition of the negro. This our new 
^ government is the first in the history of tJw world 
' based upon this great physical, philosophical, and 
' morcd truths Yes, Mr. Stephens, it is the first, 
indeed, and I think it will be the last ! 

So thoroughly was it understood throughout 
the South by the leaders in the war movement, 
that the preservation and extension of slavery 
was the purpose of the war, that we find sus- 
picions cast upon the fidelity of those parts of 
the South which had not a vital interest in 
slavery. Thus a writer in the Augusta (Ga.) 
Chronicle says, " Disguise it as we may, the great- 
" est danger to our new Confederacy arises, not 
" from without, not from the North, but from our 
•^^own people. . . . The indications are, that 
" organised, if not avowed opposition, to the new 
" order of things, may arise in States or parts of 
" Southern States not vitally interested in the slavery 
^'^ question y 

Suspension of Constitutional Eights. 

It has been said, too, that Mr. Lincoln's rule 
was despotic — that constitutional liberty was 
restricted by suspension of habeas corpus in some 



INCIDENTAL QUESTIONS. 27 

cases, and strict dealing with the press. But a 
state of civil war puts constitutional rights in 
abeyance if this be found necessai'-y to the public 
safety. Can any one doubt that, if the British 
Government found itself seriously confronted 
with armed, insurrectionary opposition anywhere 
within the limits of the United Kingdom, it 
Avould hesitate to suspend constitutional rights 
and interfere with personal liberty to any extent 
demanded by considerations of public safety and 
by the exigency of the occasion. Of course such 
suspension should only be had in the last resort, 
but of the last resort the government itself must 
be the judge. I shall not refer here to the notions 
of liberty held at the South. In the Slave States 
during their most peaceful times, there never was 
freedom of speech or of the press. 

The War Tedious. 

It has been further said that the war is an atro- 
cious one in its methods, and that, moreover, it is 
tedious in its operations, and long in coming to 
a conclusion. Now, I say that all war is atrocious. 
The deliberate killing of men is atrocious work. 
John Wesley made a famous aphorism concern- 
, ing slavery, affirming it the " sum of all vil- 
lainies," — and it was Robert Hall, I think, who 
made the aphorism concerning war, that it was 
" hell let loose." Yes, all war is atrocious. And 
the nearer we are to it in time and space, the 
more atrocious it appears. Then, as to the war 



28 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT, 

being tedious, certainly it is so, but all wars, where 
the opposing forces bear any due proportion to 
each other, are "likely to be tedious. It is much 
easier to begin a war than to dose one. If the 
South had duly considered this before firing her 
first round shot, it would have spared the world a 
great deal of anxiety and sorrow. Look at the 
history of the more recent wars of the world. 
Take the war for the occupation of the Crimea, a 
territory about the size of one of the smaller States 
of the Union. It took four nations ■ of Europe 
combined, including Great Britain and France — 
it required the combined power of these four 
European nations steadily exercised for about two 
years before they dislodged the Russians. Take 
the European peninsular war in the earlier part 
of this century. Was it not in 1808 that the 
French took Madrid, and was it not 1814 before 
even the genius of Wellington, supported by the 
allied armies, was able to drive them out of 
Spain ? Thus it took the allies under Welling- 
ton some six years to expel the French from a 
Kingdom not much larger than the single State 
of Virginia. War, indeed, is a tedious business, 
and specially does it appear so when it presses 
immediately on any of our own interests. 

Is Popular Gooernment a Failure ? 

Then, again, it is said by some that this civil 
war decides the question as to the permanency of 
the popular form of government adopted in the 



INCIDENTAL QUESTIONS. 29 

United States — a government of the people by 
the people — administered according to republican 
forms. "The bubble has burst," exclaims an 
honest tory gentleman in one of the houses of the 
British Parliament. And so say a great many 
others, who had better hopes of the result of the 
great governmental experiment in the American 
Union. Now if we jndge too hastily in this matter 
we may judge foolishly. If we cannot exactly 
look at the exciting events of our own day in the 
diy light of past history, let us at least pause and 
collate the past. Look at the history of the United 
Kingdom of Britain and Ireland. View it in 
connection with the English Monarchy, going 
back to the Norman Conquest. This brings us to 
the eleventh century. From that time to the 
present counts eight centuries. Now within these 
eight centuries of British history we may find an 
average of five intestine wars to each century. 
And if reckon from the end of the fourteenth 
century to the end of the eighteenth, we shall 
find each century showing an average of seven. 
Some of these were closed in a year, others not 
for ten years. Yet the British monarchy has not 
proved a failure, notwithstanding all these in- 
testine troubles, but has shown itself a great and 
visible success. As compared with the maturity 
of Britain, the American Union is still in non- 
age. It is not a hundred years old. A century 
in the life of a nation is as a decade in the life of 
an individual. A giant youth in lusty life is 



30 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

prone to say and do many things which the 
staid decorum of mature age will be likely to con- 
demn. But we must not judge finally of the 
character of the man until the farther develop- 
ment of the youth. I say, therefore, let us wait 
until the completion of the first century of the 
American Union before we pronounce definitely 
upon its failure. 

Popular Government in Divers Forms. 

Let us not talk rashly in this matter lest we 
should be found talking against ourselves, and 
bearing witness against our own best hopes and 
interests. Our fathers in the "old country " suf- 
fered much, and struggled long against established 
aristocratic pretension, to obtain for us, their 
descendants, our just share of influence in the 
national councils. Popular government, I define 
as a government of the people, by the people. 
Now this is what we have in Canada. With us, 
however, it is administered under the form of 
limited monarchy. But the difference here, as 
compared with the government of the United 
States, is formal, rather than substantial. Between 
a limited or constitutional monarchy, and an un- 
limited or absolute monarchy, the diff'erence is not 
only formal, but essential. In the case of absolute 
monarchy, the rule is arbitrary, as by the will of 
the sovereign. In the case of limited monarchy, 
the rule is constitutional, as prescribed by the 
law of the land. As between an absolute and a 



INCIDENTAL QUESTIONS. 31 

limited monarchy, therefore, the difference is seen 
to be essential. But as between popular govern- 
ment administered under republican, and under 
limited monarchical form, the difference is mainly 
formal. In both cases the people at large hold a 
controlling power in the government, — a power, I 
mean, sufficient to control the Executive, whether 
crowned or uncrowned. In Great Britain the 
representatives of the people hold the purse of 
the nation, and the crowned Sovereign has to ask 
them for the money needed to defray the expenses 
of the State ; and this they may give or withhold 
as they deem best. To withhold the supplies, 
which they have the constitutional power to do, 
is to render the monarch powerless. Within the 
limits of the British Isles, as represented at West- 
minster, the territorial nobles exert a command- 
ing, but still a restricted influence in the govern- 
ment. The history of the present century, how- 
ever, shows the steadily increasing influence of 
the popular element in the government, and a 
corresponding decrease in the influence of the ter- 
ritorial aristocracy. This change is going on 
peacefully, and in virtue of a law of social pro- 
gress, which, under the well-balanced institutions 
of Britain, has scope for that gradual expansion and 
adjustment to actual social necessities, which give 
stability to every step. But in these British Ameri- 
can Provinces, where this class of territorial nobles 
does not exist and cannot exist, the influence of the 
people is more immediate and direct on our govern- 



82 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

mentcal working. With this modification of our 
institutions, resulting from the fixed necessity of 
our position, our government becomes substantinllj 
similar to the government of the United States, 
though formally difterent therefrom. If, there- 
fore, we rashly join in depreciation of popular 
government, or follow the interested lead of those 
who cry against the fitness of the people to govern 
themselves, we may come to find that we have 
been speaking against ourselves, and against the 
best interests and privileges of our posterity. In 
all popular forms of government, indeed, whether 
administered under monarchy or republic, there 
will be found much to deplore through the igno- 
rance of multitudes who exercise an influence at 
the polls. But this evil the more intelligent 
classes must strive to diminish by elevating the 
intelligence of the masses. This involves a faith- 
ful and persistent attention to the cause of popular 
education, without which no form of popular 
government can exist with advantage or safety. 

British Monarchy Stable, because Popular. 

I have said that the British monarchy is no fail- 
ure, but a success, notwithstanding its many in- 
testine wars. But it would have been a failure 
if it had resisted the just claims of the great body 
of the people — your fathers and mine — to their 
fair measure of influence in the national councils. 
It would have been a failure if its settled purpose 
had been to restrict human freedom, instead of 
enlarging it. The strength, stability and perma- 



INCIDENTAL QUESTIONS. 33 

nent success of the British monarch}'^ are mainly 
due to the popular element by which it is sus- 
tained, and to the confidence with which it is 
regarded by the great body of the people. And 
with respect to the civil wars which have dis- 
tracted the British realm, some of them were 
much longer in duration than the American civil 
war up to this time, and quite as fierce. That 
which was inaugurated in Ireland by More and 
O'Neil in 1641, lasted ten years. Meanwhile 
England and Scotland had their civil wars also. 
The active strifes of the English Roundheads and 
Cavaliers of that period were of a more sanguinary 
sort than those of the present Republicans and 
Democrats of the Free States of the American 
Union. And as compared with the pitched bat- 
tles and bloody fields of those English contesting 
parties, the peaceful contest at the ballot-box last 
month between the two political parties through- 
out the Free States of the American Union, stands 
in sublime and instructive contrast. That contest 
on the eighth of November last, when millions of 
freemen, under pressure of a most exciting issue, 
cast their votes at the polls as peacefully as quiet 
villagers on a holiday, presents a spectacle for the 
world to admire, and bears more emphatic witness 
for the stability of popular government than all 
the victories of Grant and Sherman. 

Historical Precedents. 

It is to be borne in mind that, notwithstanding 

c 



34 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

the internal strifes in England, the insurrection in 
Ireland was not lost sight of, but quelled by the 
strong arm. Then came confiscation of estates, to 
the great grief of old Irish families. Now if the 
Free States, through the national government of 
the American Union, should persist for ten years 
toward the suppression of the insurrection of the 
Slave States, and should in the end confiscate the 
plantations, it will be seen that they have histo- 
rical precedents bequeathed to them from the joint 
English ancestry of North and South. And I am 
sure that under a changed system of labor, where 
the tiller of the soil should work under the stim- 
ulus of the paymaster's purse instead of tlie over- 
seer's lash, the laborer would have nothing to 
deplore. 

President Lincoln. 

Let us hope, however, that the war will not be 
of much longer continuance. The re-election of 
Mr. Lincoln, by revealing the settled purpose of 
the Free States to put forth their combined power, 
may hasten its close. Mr. Lincoln has had the ho- 
nor to receive a large measure of abuse from the 
enemies of popular government and the foes of free 
labor. And others, not exactly of this class, have 
joined in the storm against him, being swept into 
it by the current. For myself, I am glad of his 
re-election. I regard him as an able and honest 
magistrate, doing his duty faithfully under cir- 
cumstances of various difficulty, such as few of us 



INCIDENTAL QUESTIONS. 35 

who live more at ease can adequately understand. 
Mr. Lincoln began life as a man of liard-lianded 
toil, and he is still a toiling man, though his hard 
work is now of the head. There are territorial 
nobles in England, and large planters of the South, 
whose early leisure for study, and more careful 
training in statesmanship, might have qualified 
them more eminently for such a chair as tha,t 
which Mr. Lincoln occupies. But for one man of 
these claC'Ses who Avould have discharged his great 
trusts better, and brought more sagacity and 
integrity to the high task, I think it likely there 
would have been two, or perhaps ten, who would 
have performed the presidential duties a great 
deal worse. What if he did, in early life, earn 
his living by handicraft. Shall I respect him the 
less for this ? Nay, but more. The main ques- 
tion for me is : was he honest in his handicraft 
work ? And I am sure he was. I have never 
seen Mr. Lincoln ; but what if his hands are hard- 
ened with honest toil. Should I approach him as 
President of the United States with less respect on 
this account ? Certainly not. I should approach 
him with as much respect as if he had the blood 
of the Cou¥tneys and Montmorencys and Howards, 
all flowing in his veins. And I should certainly 
approach him with much more respect than ii" he 
were the owner of the largest plantation in Vir- 
ginia or Louisiana, Avhere a thousand unpaid slaves 
toiled perforce for his beneflt, and whom, by his 
word or sign manual, he could send to the auction 



36 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

block to-morrow. All honor, then, to honest 
Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, 
and President-elect of the Free United States of 
America. [Here the speaker was interrupted by 
prolonged applause.] I hope the war will be 
brought to a close long before the end of his second 
term. Would that it could be closed before the end 
of the first six months thereof. Would that South 
and North should put foot to foot on the neck of 
Shivery, the cause of their strife, and rejoin hand 
and hand together in a common interest and a com- 
mon hope, and that peace might be thus restored. 
No one desires peace more strongly than myself. 
But if this cannot be done, I see no immediate way 
to the much desired peace, except the party who 
first took up the sword shall be the first to lay it 
down. 

DUTY OF CANADA. 

And now I approach a matter which directly 
touches our own territory, interest and honor. It 
is to be kept in mind, fellow citizens, that the de- 
clared policy of the Queen's Imperial Government 
in reference to the disastrous civil war in America, 
is neutrality and non-intervention. It remains 
for Canadians, as good subjects, not to compromise 
this policy, or embroil Great Britain for the bene- 
fit of the slave institutions of the South. Accord- 
ing to present appearances, a continued policy of 
non-intervention on the part of foreign powers 
will ensure the speedy and irretrievable downfall 
of slavery on this continent 



DUTY OF CANADA. 37 



2'he Raid on St. Albans. 



You know how much our coraniunity has 
been excited, and is still excited, by the ma- 
rauding and manslaying at a peaceful village 
on our borders, and the unexpected and un- 
fortunate result of the judicial investigation 
relating to the arrested parties. That result is 
felt to be very humiliating to us as a people. 
When the intelligence of the robbery first reached 
this city, there was only one opinion as to its 
atrocious character. This was subsequently modi- 
fied with a portion of the community through the 
plea set up in defence of the prisoners. The 
simple facts of the case may be thus stated. A 
band of twenty or thirty men entered the village 
of St. Albans, Vermont — a quiet, unarmed, unsus- 
pecting village — five or six hundred miles from 
the nearest seat of actual war. These men came 
into the village separately, and in the character 
of ordinary travellers, taking lodging in several 
hotels, and registering false names there. At a 
certain hour on a given day, they went in com- 
panies of three or four each, into the village 
banks, as for an ordinary commercial purpose. 
They enquired the price of gold, as if they had 
some money-changing business to transact. Then,, 
watching their opportunity, they raised pistols, 
after the Turpin fashion, to the head of the clerk 
or cashier, and rifled the bank vaults. Mean- 
while, other persons of the same band were putting 
pistols to the heads of hostler boys in the livery 



38 TUB AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

stables, and stealing the horses. Swinging them- 
selves and their booty rapidly on these stolen 
horses, the whole band started away at a gallop, 
firing pistols on every side. One man passing 
qnietly along the village street was killed by the 
shooting, others wounded, and a little girl by the 
rural wayside struck by their bullets. In this 
fashion they gallopped a few miles, across the bor- 
der of our neutral territory, where a portion of 
the gang was arrested, and made disgorge their 
booty. And thus arrested, when brought before 
the magistrate, they have the face to plead, 
through counsel, that in the eye of the law they 
are to be regarded as a — retreating army ! For 
such in substance is their plea. A retreating army, 
indeed ! Why if the worst enemies of the South 
wished to caricature their warfare, they could not 
do so more effectually than by this plea. 

Lawful and TlnJawful Use of Statute Laio 

I will make no imputation against the two 
functionaries through whose precipitancy of action 
these marauders have been allowed, on a technical 
point, to escape with their booty. But this I will 
say, that statute law is of no avail for good to any 
community, if such law be not used lawfully. 
For there is a lawful and an unlawful use of law. 
I should not think of citing the Apostle Paul as 
legal authority, but I have no hesitation in refer- 
ring to him as moral authority. He writes that 
^' the law is good, if used lawfully," thus indicat- 



THE DUTY OF CANADA. 39 

ing that there is a lawful and unlawful use of 
law. All statute law is a standing token of the 
imperfection of human society. If human society 
were perfect, we should have no need of statute 
law. But statute law is useless, and may be worse 
than useless — it may be made instrumental in 
preventing, rather than in promoting justice — if 
the interpretation thereof be not controlled and 
directed by thorough respect for moral law. The 
interpretation and administration of statute law, 
lacking this, degenerate into mere intellectual 
dexterity, which, again, through pressure of low 
motives, may descend into a base game of trick. 
In all matters of statute law, municipal or national, 
and of international treaty stipulations, it is safe 
to say generally, that " that which is best ad- 
ministered is best." An honest purpose in the 
interpreter and administrator, is an absolutely re- 
quisite guide to a just decision, and an honorable 
administration of the law. 

Transfer of the Seat of War. 

In the western prairies, when the fire lights up 
the tall grass, and the wind sweeps it along in 
swift and terrible destruction, the settler finds his 
safety in lighting up another fire in another part to 
be carried along by the same wind. In the field of 
international politics, the process may not be pre- 
cisely the same, but results may be produced sub- 
stantially alike. There is a great war raging in 
the South, and it would undoubtedly suit the 



40 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

interest of some, if the fires of war could be lighted 
up here in the North, so that the destroying 
armies operating there should be drawn elsewhere. 
If, through any well-concerted intrigue into which 
any portion of our community, be it ever so small, 
or uninfluential, could be drawn consciously or 
unconsciously to participate — if, through any such 
intrigue, a combination of circumstances should be 
produced which would light the fires of war in 
the North, it is easy to see how well this would 
Suit the present exigencies of the South. If 
General Sheridan, who, I am told, is a fellow- 
countryman of mine, could be transferred with 
his army from the Shenandoah valley to the 
valley of the St. Lawrence, it would be a sensible 
relief to the people of Virginia. But though I 
should gladly welcome able Irishmen coming into 
Canada, I wish to see them come with peaceful 
intent. The Irish can dig Avell, as well as fight 
well, and I desire to see them come to dig our 
mines, fell our forests and till our soil. Here 
they can have farms of a hundred acres or a thou- 
sand acres, with no landlord to grind or harass 
them. Here every capable and industrious man 
may be his own landlord. There is plenty of 
room for all such who come, and a great deal to 
spare besides. Or, if General Sherman, who has 
just marched a flying column of forty or fifty 
thousand men some three hundred miles through 
the heart of Georgia, should, as the result of any 
intrigue or combination of circumstances, have 



THE DUTY OF CANADA. 41 

his face turned northward, and his tlying cohnnn 
carried three or four hundred mik's into the heart 
of Canada, it would be a great relief to Georgia just 
now, and to the two Carolinas. If this, or any such 
movement, could he ensured, then other moves 
might be expected to follow. The British West 
India squadron, or some other British squadron, 
would move on New York or Boston. Then 
Farragut, Dahlgren, or Porter, would move on 
the British squadron. This would uncover the 
Southern seaboard, and open the ports of Charles- 
ton, Savannah, and Wilmington. Then might 
Mr. Davis and the men at Richmond rejoice. 
They had transferred their game of war into other 
hands, to be played out upon another board. Now 
they would be more likely to be " let alone " in 
the accomplishment of their purposes. Now they 
might look after their lost slaves, and gather up 
the million fetters broken during the war in the 
South. Now every round shot booming from a 
British gun against the Free States, would be as 
the stroke of a heavy hammer rivetting anew the 
manacles on the African, throughout all the wide 
territory, from Mason and Dixon's line to the 
Mexican borders. And who should have to pay 
and to suffer by such transfer of the war from 
South to Noyth ? You and I, fellow-citizens, all 
the people of Canada, and our relatives and 
friends, besides, — our fellow-subjects in the mother 
country. The bank robbery at St. Albans, and 
the Southern plots on our upper lakes, have al- 



42 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

ready, it is said, involved Canada in an ex- 
pense of nearly half a million of dollars. This 
you and I and all Canadians will have to pay. 
But this will not compare as a drop to the 
bucket, to what we shall have to pay if an inter- 
national war should be inaugurated through 
Southern intrigue. In such case^ what would 
Canadian banks be worth ? or Canadian shipping, 
or property of any kind ? Our relatives on the 
other side of the Atlantic are already taxed enough, 
without having to pay any more to equip naval 
armaments to operate against the Free United 
States for behoof of the Slave Confederacy. And 
whatever certain classes of society there may de- 
sire — those I mean who desire to see a case made 
out against the cause of popular government, or 
who, possessing millions of money, have, through 
the misleading reports of " Times' " correspon- 
dents, invested some of their millions in Confed- 
erate stocks — whatever such classes may desire, I 
am sure the great masses of the people in the 
British islands desire no such war for any such 
purpose. " Behold how great a matter a little 
fire kindleth." Jail junketting in Montreal with 
bank plunderers, and Southern sympathies stimula- 
ted by more elegant private hospitalities — these 
social processes may be freely used for political 
ends, and one may see the fruit thereof in the 
expression of public opinion. A portion of our 
press may do the work of the Slave States by 
blowing hot and cold at a moment when a blast 



THE DUTY OF CANADA. 43 

of unqualified indignation alone should be given, 
or by a continued course of irritating insult to- 
wards the Free States. Edge tools in the hands 
of wise and skilful men are useful. But edge 
tools in the hands of fools or children, or those 
who do not know, or do not care what mischief 
they work, are not useful, but very danger- 
ous. In such, hands, the glittering playthings 
may be made to inflict wounds deep and disas- 
trous, and very hard to be healed. 

SoutJiern Agents in Canada. 

We are told, through a portion of our press in 
the interest and confidence of the Slave Repub- 
lic, that influential Southern gentlemen residing 
among us give their assurance that our territory 
shall not be insulted, nor our peace put in peril. 
This assurance is gracious, and ought to be gratify- 
ing. But for my part, I do not want to hear any 
such assurances. Southern gentlemen who are here? 
are here on a neutral territory, whose laws they are 
bound to respect, and must be made to respect, if 
they will not be bound by the obligations of honor. 
The flag which symbolizes the British nationality is 
never without sufficient authority to effect this. 
We offer asylum in Canada to poor and rich 
alike, to the slave and the master, recognizing the 
freedom of one as well as the other, within the 
limits of our law. And if agents of the Slave 
Confederacy frequent our cities and traverse our 
highways of travel in pursuvance of their mission, 



44 TUE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

and promoting plots to " make European civiliza- 
tion shudder/'* they must, and I think will be 
looked after. The Canadian people have no desire 
that the British Empire should be drawn into a 
war which must be fought on their northern soil 
for the benefit and relief of the slaveholding 
interests of the South. If this dreadful strife 
must go on, let it be kept outside of our borders. 
Such, I hold to be the view of the Canadian 
people, and their Provincial Government. I have 
confidence in the fixed purpose and good faith of 
our Canadian Government in this grave matter.f 

The Free States our Neighbors and Natural Friends. 
We have no desire to quarrel with the Free 

* Mr. Sala, in a letter to the London Telegraph, speaks of a Coafederfl,te 
agent whom he met on the Railroad, a few miles from Montreal. He 
told me, writes Mr. S., " that the St. Albans raid was only the first of a 
series of similar enterprises which were already cut and dried, and which 
were to be brought to maturity in the event of Mr. Lincoln's re- 
election, during the winter months. He said that he could com- 
municate by means of an imi)enetrable cipher with every city in 
the North, and that he had means at his command for causing the 
outbreak of incendiary fires in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and 
Baltimore, and for forcing gold up to four hundred before the 1st of 
January next. ' In fact. Sir,' he concluded, ' we shall do such deeds 
within the next three months, as shall make European civilization shud- 
der.' Thus far the Confederate agent. I violate no seal of confidence 
in repeating this conversation, which took place in a railway car, on the 
way to St. Johns, Canada, where the preliminary examination of the 
raiders was to take place before the British authorities." 

t Several of the liberated raiders have been re-arrested, including the 
leader, who was taken by the Government police about three hundred 
miles from Montreal, on the way to New Brunswick. While these sheets 
are going through the press, an investigation of this case is going on 
before one of the judges of the Superior Court, which, doubtless, will 
lead to a decision on the merits. 



THE DUTY OF CANADA. 45 

States of the North. They are our neighbors and 
natural friends, bound to us, as we are to them, by 
the reciprocal ties of amicable commercial inter- 
course. With them, as with us, free labor is 
respected, and the honest tiller of the soil has the 
status of a man and a citizen. With them, and 
with us, the word liberty has the same meaning, 
involving the right of poor and rich, black and 
white alike, to the disposal of their4)wn persons, 
of theii personal ability and exertion, and of the 
fruits thereof. In the vocabulary of the Slave 
States, when they cry for liberty and indepen- 
dence, we know that they mean only license to 
hold the poor in bondage, and rob the tiller 
of their soil of his first rights as a man. The 
traditions and policy of our mother country have 
been steadily on the side of personal liberty. 
And this, which is one of her most glorious 
distinctions, has been a cause of constant hos- 
tility towards her by statesmen and people of 
the Slave States. Was it not the senator from 
Mississippi who cracked his grim jokes at the 
" crocodile tears " of English investers who 
honestly bought, and paid for those Mississippi 
bonds Avhich were dishonestly repudiated — was 
it not Mr. Jefferson Davis who did this thing, 
the man who is, and has been from its beginning, 
the President of the Southern Confederacy ? 
There was another Southern senator, who, to 
irritate Old England, said her ships should be 
swept from the seas ; and to irritate New England, 



46 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

said lie should call the roll of his slaves on Bunker 
Hill, — and the man who said these things, was 
made the first Secretary of State in the Southern 
Confederacy. And when the heir to the British 
Crown visited the United States, a few years 
since, and received ovations of welcome in the 
leading cities, worthy alike of guest and host, it 
was reserved for one city in the Union to insult 
him, to hustle his suite in the public streets, and 
put contempt upon his Royal Mother's name,^= — and 
that city was Richmond, Virginia, now the capital 
of the Southern Confederacy. The Free States, 
and not the Slave Confederacy, are the natural 
allies of our mother country, the Free United 
Kingdom, where free labor is established and 
encouraged, and where the forced and unpaid toil 
of slaves is abominated. 

Our Means of Defence. 

Allow me to refer to one thing more before I sit 
down. Our people have been talking a good deal 
of late about our means of defence, as against our 
neighbors, on the other side of our long frontier. 
Fellow-citizens, our best defence is very close at 
hand. The Chinese method is a poor shift at 
best. It is said they blow horns, drum up all 
sorts of discordant noises, and yell defiance at their 
approaching enemies, in order to inspire them with 
terror. This is not a very rational or dignified 
method, and we soon discover that it is only a 
puerile way of trying to conceal weakness, and 



THE DUTY OF CANADA. 47 

hide their fear of heing considered afrn'id. It is 
the poor device of a poor form of cowardice. 
We, Canadians, do not use Chinese blowing horns, 
but if our mind is of the oriental type, we may set 
up our clatter, and howl our defiance through the 
trumpets of our daily newspapers. Our true 
defence, as I have just said, is very close at hand. 
I hope we all read the Bible. It is a wonderful 
storehouse of wisdom for all emergencies. There is 
a say ill g there by the Hebrew sage and preacher, 
and it is this : — " Wisdom is better than weapons of 
war." We read there of a little city against 
which a mighty force came up to besiege it, and a 
poor man delivered the city by his wisdom. 
Therefore, saith the Bible sage, " Wisdom is 
better than strength ;" " Wisdom is better than 
weapons of war." And this wisdom may be shown 
in the manifestation of a peaceful spirit, and of an 
honorable purpose to fulfil, in all good faith, our 
treaty stipulations with our neighbors. It may be 
shown by our observance as dutiful subjects, of our 
Queen's proclamation of neutrality, and by refus- 
ing to sanction, directly or indirectly, any overt 
act or implied purpose which would embarrass our 
Queen's Government, or embroil in war the great, 
industrious, peaceful and prosperous empire, with 
which it is our privilege to be connected. It may 
be shown by our fidelity to the noblest traditions 
of that empire which forbids us to aid or abet, by 
word or deed, the iniquity of slavery, or prop its 
falling fortunes on this continent. It may be shown 



48 THE AMERICAN CONFLICT. 

by our love of human freedom, in our cherishing 
the spirit thereof, and in our living desire that 
all men should be free. It may be shown through 
our respect for honest and honorable toil, and our 
pronounced desire that the honest toilers in all 
lands, whether they be black or white, shall re- 
ceive an honest wage for their toil, and enjoy as 
their indefeasible right, all the privileges of 
Christian men. " Wisdom is better than weapons 
of war ;" and such wisdom as this, I hold to be the 
bounden duty of Canada and her people to cherish 
and manifest at the present juncture of our affairs. 



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